this little school i went to teach at yesterday has a big window which can be seen from all four roads of the intersection. i was told, “oh by the way, make sure you stand when teaching because we need people passing by to see that we have a real foriegn teacher here”.
do you feel like an item for sale? a puppy in the window? how do you feel about this?
i generally like to be face level with kids and i really don’t feel like standing for an hour due to health issues recently.
-I doooo believe he’s for sale…
How much is that waiguo in da windooow…
The one with the …
Kids that fail?
Bucket of nails?
Likes to do rails?
Many strange tales?
Uh- no this doesn’t bother me. I’m not a real foreign teacher though so the jokes on them. It’s the cameras that annoy me.
Short answer: yes. I feel like my school just wants parents to see (on the closed circuit TV system in my school) while they’re waiting downstairs that their children are interacting with a waiguoren and that’s all that matters. Once they even tried to make me take a class of baby beginners in the same room as some intermediate kids just so the parents would see that the foreigner was there. It’s not about education.
Not so coincidentally, I’m also leaving within the week. The two go together.
LOL, so its like the opposite of real businesses in Taiwan who absolutely hate having a foreigner around asking awkward questions and making everyone lose face?
Yup. They definitely want to show you off. However, at least in my school, they hate it if you speak any Chinese, because then if the parents try to talk to you you can respond and then you start being the weirdo who asks weird things and makes everyone lose face.
[quote=“theposter”]this little school i went to teach at yesterday has a big window which can be seen from all four roads of the intersection. i was told, “oh by the way, make sure you stand when teaching because we need people passing by to see that we have a real foreign teacher here”.
do you feel like an item for sale? a puppy in the window? how do you feel about this?
i generally like to be face level with kids and i really don’t feel like standing for an hour due to health issues recently.[/quote]
They put me out front one time at pickup time…
…By myself.
So parents were coming up and asking questions, people would yell from their car asking me to call and have their kid come down, and our small little street because a clutered mess once several parents came at once with the same problems.
I just stood there and smiled. What else CAN you do? 
They tried making me come to a parent education night…where someone comes to give a talk. I arrived and just sat there. After 5 minutes, you start to get bored. They wanted it to be a photo op, but I just looked too bored to take my picture. They let me leave early and I haven’t had to go to one since. Except when my mom gave a talk, but I wanted to be there anyway.
Matt
Why don’t you feel like a guy who doesn’t have to put much effort in to get his pay?
Find the positive and you find your freedom.
At least you don’t have to lick anyone’s balls. Imagine being a real puppy.
Who was that directed towards? If it was me, I am a guy who doesn’t feel like I don’t have to put much effort in to get my pay. I put a lot of effort in to get my pay.
Always have with every job I have done. Probably one of my downfalls.
Matt
Who was that directed towards? If it was me, I am a guy who doesn’t feel like I don’t have to put much effort in to get my pay. I put a lot of effort in to get my pay. Always have with every job I have done. Probably one of my downfalls.
Matt[/quote]
No, it was directed towards the original poster. Sorry for my lack of clarity.
Chin, Long
[quote=“superking”]
No, it was directed towards the original poster. Sorry for my lack of clarity.
Chin, Long[/quote]
That’s ok. I won’t speak for him, but I wonder if I can address my impression of what he’s saying.
There’s a difference between being a teacher and being a part of a marketing plan. I think all teachers - ESPECIALLY if they’re in a smaller school - are both to some degree. The balance just varies from school to school.
Back in America as a teacher, my main goal was to ALWAYS be a teacher during the class period when children were there. My job, as I saw it, was to help the children learn and develop. Here, I realize that’s often secondary…if existant at all.
Some might want kids to just be able to parrot phrases with no clue what they mean, but sound impressive to those that don’t know better.
Some might want kids that can sing songs, but have no clue how to talk to a foreigner. Unless, of course, he happens to be there on the bus singing “Twinkle Twinkle Little Star.”
And, yes, there are quite a few that actually want you to teach English. So I’m not denying that also.
But the poster raises an interesting point. We might look at it and say, “they want him to stand so people walking outside can see. What’s the big deal?” The big deal in this case is not being on the children’s level. Are we trying to teach children or are we trying to get people to see the white guy in the window? I don’t mean this insultingly, but it seems to be a difference between Taiwan standards vs. Western standards. At the schools I worked at in the US, people brought their children back because they got what they wanted…a good education and a place for their children to develop socially. Here, the standard often seems to be how many checks they can put on the “I have a better school for my kid than you do” pamphlet. The foreign teacher, of course, being at the top of that list.
A solution for the schools to resolve both the marketing issue and the teaching issue? Mirrors. I don’t know what their wall situation is like, but if people look in and see a foreigner through the mirror that is down on the child’s level and teaching that way, that would be WAY more impressive than someone standing over them just so he could be seen from the outside.
Matt
i just don’t like the whole marketing thing. and i am also scared of a phucking bullet coming thru that window one day.
say it can’t happen? don’t bet on it.
The latter of course. Nobody wants to teach children in this scenario. They want impressionable, not-very-worldy parents to see a white man and fork over some money. That’s all. Nothing more.
[quote=“theposter”]i just don’t like the whole marketing thing. and i am also scared of a phucking bullet coming thru that window one day.
say it can’t happen? don’t bet on it.[/quote]
Ballistaphobia program:
changethatsrightnow.com/prob … D=330:1410
Matt
The fact of the matter is that language schools employ (white) foreigners as a marketing tool. If you think what you do there is professional teaching then more power to you, but don’t complain about it because that is not what is essentially expected of you. I know there are people who are actually very good at teaching who work in bushibans but what a waste of talent and effort it is to do a job that any native English speaking person with a 3-year BA degree could pull of. What I am trying to say is that if you don’t like being a puppy in the window, then don’t do a job that is precisely that. We all know that everyone doing it is in it for the 50K + it pays a month. Calling yourself a ‘teacher’ just makes it seem less shameful, but don’t insist on it.